Field of Dreams
“People Will Come”
GIRL: People will come.
RAY: What, what people, sweetheart?
GIRL: From all over. They’ll just decide to take a vacation, see. And they’ll come to Iowa City, and they’ll think it’s really boring, so they’ll drive up and wanna pay us. Like buying a ticket.
2ND MAN: You’re not seriously listening to this, are ya?
WOMAN: Yes.
2nd MAN: Wait a minute. Why would anybody pay money to come here?
GIRL: To watch the games. It will be just like when they were little kids, a long time ago, and they’ll watch the game and remember what it was like.
2ND MAN: What the hell is she talking about?
GIRL: People will come.
2ND MAN: All right, all right, all right. This is fascinating, it is, but the fact remains that you don’t have the money to bring the mortgage up to date, so you’re still going to have to sell. I’m sorry, Ray. We got no choice.
3RD MAN: Ray, people will come. They’ll come to Iowa for reasons they can’t even fathom. They’ll turn up your driveway, not even knowing for sure why they’re doing it. They’ll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won’t mind if you look around, you’ll say. It’s only $20 per person. They’ll pass over the money without even thinking about it, for it is money they have and peace they like.
2nd MAN: Ray, just sign the papers.
3rd MAN. And they’ll walk off to the bleachers. Sit in their shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They’ll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the base lines. Where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they’ll watch the game, and it will be as if they’ve dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick, they’ll have to brush them away from their faces.
2nd MAN: Ray. When the bank opens in the morning, they’ll foreclose.
3rd MAN: People will come, Ray.
2nd MAN: You’re broke, Ray. You sell now, or you lose everything.
3rd MAN: The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of all that once was good and could be again. Oh, people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.
2nd MAN: Ray, you will lose everything. You will be evicted.
RAY: I’m not selling.
2ND MAN: You’re crazy. Absolutely nuts!
RAY: I can’t do it, pal.
2nd MAN: Annie, Ray. You built a baseball field in the middle of nowhere, and you sit here and you stare at nothing.
GIRL: It’s not nothin’!